One nap gal

The past couple weeks Yelena has been taking only one nap, from around 11ish to 1ish, give or take a half hour. Since this change, she's been going down at night very easily, sleeping until 8, and waking up cooing and kicking instead of crying.

Today, due to a 1:00 appointment, she went back to her previous nap schedule of a morning nap and a short afternoon nap. Doom. It took bloody forever to put her down tonight. She just wasn't having it. She gained a half-hour this afternoon, but lost an hour and a half at bedtime. Although she was sleepy by 3, with this negative sum sleep it would have been better if I had just kept her awake in the afternoon.

Screw all the sleep experts, with their a baby age x should be getting y amount of naps for z amount of time. When I followed their advice about putting a baby down 15 minutes earlier every night, that failed drastically, too. Gee, I can put my baby down at 8:30 and she'll sleep through the night, or I can put her down at 7:30 and have her wake up 5 times. Like most things in parenting, I am learning that following my instincts and my daughter's cues result in a happier mommy and a happier, well-rested baby.